For ten years, The WWE has celebrated the holidays with their tribute To The Troops. This year, however, there a few new twists. WWE Superstars John Cena & Shamus explain it all, plus are you really surprised that AMAZING SPIDER-MAN #700 has shown up on eBay?
There is no doubt, THE HOBBIT will be doing big box office this weekend, but did you know there was a point where Martin Freeman may not have returned as Bilbo Baggins? Director Peter Jackson shares the story plus answers the question on why two more HOBBIT films are on the way. And Image confuses retailers with a new “no reprint” policy.
This weekend, Peter Jackson’s HOBBIT – AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY opens in theaters. We talk to cast members Martin Freeman, Richard Armitage and Elijah Wood on what is was like to return to the franchise after nearly a decade. Plus The FANTASTIC FOUR film moves forward, Gail Simone moves on and THE SAINT may be moving back to TV.
As ARROW hits the halfway mark of the TV season, fans and critics alike say it keeps getting better. We go backstage with the creators and cast to find out how they got this far, and what lies ahead for new characters including one played by fan favorite John Barrowman. Plus How about Captain Kirk, Ron Burgundy or Spock doing your voice mail message? It can happen if you hurry.
It’s a Christmas tradition at a lot of holiday parties. You might call it “Secret Santa” or “White Elephant” but now it’s getting super-sized and coming to NBC for five consecutive nights. Howie Mandel joins us to talk about what TAKE IT ALL will mean to the landscape of primetime television, plus Neil Gaiman hits radio and WALKING DEAD fans can keep the fear going with a new iOS game.
In a short period of time, two 20th anniversary box sets have been released, both using XX in their titles. The wonderful Canadian band Great Big Sea just had their celebratory two-disc set come out and now comes Tarantino XX, a more appropriately named set, commemorating the filmmaker’s two decades in the business.
Quentin Tarantino began like so many of did, obsessed with movies and television and pop culture. His tastes ran along the fringes such as the Hong Kong martial arts fare and the Blaxploitation films of the 1970s. A walking, talking cornucopia of film lore, he was the perfect video store employee, never at a loss for a recommendation regardless of taste. He fortunately turned those interests to filmmaking, bringing his knowledge and passion to screenplays for others and his own works.
If you had to write one line about his work it would be “Always shoot first, ask questions later” as his films are often violent blood fests. For those who appreciate his storytelling skills, you accept and enjoy the bloodshed since it’s all so over the top as to be step over the line between real violence and cartoon violence. Instead, you’re captivated by seeing fresh ideas, original and memorable characters who spout crackling, idiosyncratic dialogue.
He made us sit up and pay attention to his skills with Reservoir Dogs, a blend of mayhem and character that was filled with excellent dialogue and sharply delineated characters. After that, he came out with the brilliant Pulp Fiction and he became an actor’s director, always giving them something unusual and fun to play. As a result, his movies have been stuffed with actors from all corners of Hollywood, having the time of their lives. Why? It’s because his films are tightly structured pieces that pays as much attention to structure as it does to dialogue, making these riveting experiences.
The box set contains all seven films from his director’s chair – Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Jackie Brown, Kill Bill Parts 1 and 2, Death Proof (Tarantino’s contribution to Grindhouse), Inglorious Basterds, plus True Romance which he wrote but the late Tony Scott directed. All that’s really missing is “The Man from Hollywood” segment of Four Rooms. While all have been previously released on Blu-ray and come complete with their usual extras, the box comes with five hours of new material spread over two discs. The films look and sound as one would expect so there’s nothing to fear about keeping your originals but for Tarantino fans, the extra material is worth having. For anyone with gaps in their collection, the box is well worth having and revisiting before seeing Django Unchained later this month.
Disc one contains the complete unedited version of the Critics’ Corner: The Films of Quentin Tarantino (4:50). Much of this has been sprinkled throughout the extras of many of the solo releases but you can hear some interesting critical thoughts from Scott Foundus, Stephanie Zacharek, Tim Lucas and Andy Klein. They work their way through Tarantino’s films, one by one, and their insights are useful in placing the films in context. It’s not all laudatory as the talking heads express preferences for some films and rejections of others while still appreciating the craft. Many interesting insights are offered up such as the alternate reality World War II tale, Basterds is all about language.
The second disc begins with Quentin Tarantino: 20 Years of Filmmaking (2:13), a fabulous career retrospective that traces his career from initial screenplays to first sale. Lawrence Bender, Robert Rodriguez, Pam Grier and Robert Forster show up to tell some funny anecdotes while Stacey Sher compares Tarantino to Roger Corman which is probably high praise to Tarantino even if I find it a little off the mark. Sally Menke, Tarantino’s perennial editor nicely receives her due here. Then there is Jackie Brown Q&A: A Film Independent at LACMA Event (32:15) as columnist Elvis Mitchell talks with Grier, Forster and Tarantino. Pleasant but nothing earthshattering here. We’re rounded out with Django Unchained—Coming Soon (10:43) which is a collection of trailers.
If you’re like me, who loves the musical stings that harken back to other projects or adore seeing character actors given something fresh to do and don’t mind the violence and gore, then you’ll probably appreciate sitting down with this fine set.
SONS OF ANARCHY will be wrapping this season on a particularly bloody note, which has been the tone for the last few months. We talked with series creator Kurt Sutter about his plans to keep the tension and betrayal coming. Plus everyone is waiting for the 2nd part of the direct-to-DVD DARK KNIGHT RETURNS. Bruce Timm & Andrea Romano join us to talk about what we will and won’t be seeing in the next part set to hit stores in 2013.
The November TV Ratings Sweeps are over and for the first time in a while, NBC climbed to the top. Critics are saying that the win was due to several of the network’s new shows, including the comedy GO ON. We talk to the creators and cast about just how a show about death became so funny, plus Chevy Chase finally bolts from COMMUNITY and David Tennant back on DOCTOR WHO??
I don’t know why they call today Black Friday. It sounds like a superhero version of Gulliver’s Travels, as published by DC or Marvel in the 1970s. And that might be the quickest digression we’ve had on ComicMix to date.
A bunch of the ComicMix columnists contributed a list of gift suggestions, all with snappy convenient links to Amazon for your shopping pleasure. Well, Mindy ran her list in her column last Monday; you’ve probably already read that but if not, click through in awe and wonder. Please note: I asked each contributor to include one item that they were directly involved in, so don’t think they’re pandering. That’s not necessarily the case.
And the whole group picks Samurai Jack – Season 1 “We owe so much of what Samurnauts are to this amazing series by Gendy Tartakovsky. And the performance by Phil Lamarr is nuanced and brilliant.”
On behalf of our friend Dennis O’Neil, I would like to recommend each and every item he’s recommended in the Recommended Reading portion of his weekly ComicMix column… and I also suggest when you’re at Amazon you check out his own billion or so books – you can’t go wrong with any of them. But, of course, particularly the ones I recommend at the end of this column.
And, finally, The Question trade paperbacks, written by Dennis O’Neil, drawn by Denys Cowan, and edited by Ye Olde Editor. I linked the first of the series; Amazon will guide you to the rest.
Have a great shopping season, drive carefully, don’t lose your cool and start gunning down your fellow shoppers, and unless you start shooting tell ’em ComicMix sent you!
The second season of NBC’sGRIMM has turned the characters upside down, especially “Juliette” played by Bitsi Tulloch. She fills us in on how it all happened – and what’s coming up on the show when it returns in 2013. Plus CBS’PERSON OF INTEREST is a Top 5 rated show which has been a surprise to a lot of folks including stars Michael Emerson & Jim Caviezel who talk about putting the show together. Meanwhile, STAR WARS gets two more writers and WOLVERINE gets a Marvel NOW launch.
